


Twins

by Kitt_Monroe



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Gen, I'm serious they look exactly the same, Some minor spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-11-03 01:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10956396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kitt_Monroe/pseuds/Kitt_Monroe
Summary: Some people (Ouma) just want to watch the world burn.





	Twins

“What are you staring at?”

The question, spoken with no obvious malice but a fair amount of irritation, broke a silence that had lasted at least a couple of minutes. For the most part the students gathered at the dining table this evening had paid more conspicuous attention to the meal they were taking than to each other; a few of the more optimistic, or at least generous, members of the group attributed the lack of verbal communication to the quality of Toujo’s cooking, but it was fairly unconvincing, and less sycophantic reviews from Hoshi and Yumeno didn’t help matters.

It was only one of the more plain examples of a common theme among the students, which was that the majority of the gifted juveniles preferred to focus on trivial distractions from their unfortunate situation, in an attempt to preserve a kind of harmony and perhaps consequently prevent any tragic occurrences re:New School Life of Mutual Killing. It worked well when they were all getting along; and for the most part, and particularly whenever no conversation of serious substance was made to take place between the inmates, they had all gotten along.

But that just made the students a bit overly sensitive to disruptions to that harmony, and any sign of an altercation felt much more troubling than it probably needed to.

The question, posed by Chabashira, shot a brief but powerful concern through some of her classmates, who were getting used to the aikido master’s forcefulness of manner and bluntness of speech but were not generally ready to deal with a line of conversation that sounded like it could start a major conflict. Akamatsu began tapping her fingers rhythmically on the table and humming a bit nervously to herself; Shinguuji became very interested in the transparent quality of his beverage glass, and Shirogane busily adjusted her bow tie with obvious discomfort.

It was at Ouma that the question was directed, and he promptly assumed his most recognizable and most practiced-looking angel face at being interrogated so. Those students not watching Chabashira for any change in demeanor watched Ouma to see if his response might somehow reveal the source of Chabashira’s discontent. Instead, the self-styled evil overlord only replied, “Whatever you do you mean, Chabashira-chan?”

“Don’t give Tenko that,” Chabashira huffed. “You’ve been casting secretive glances at Tenko for the past five minutes, Tenko can see it!”

Reactions to this display were mixed: Harukawa seemed already bored by the interaction, and Amami gave a brief and quiet sigh, apparently content that nothing too antagonistic was being said. Gokuhara, on the other hand, looked between Ouma and Chabashira with some hesitation, and Momota worried the tip of his pipe with his teeth.

Ouma simply stared up at Chabashira with wide, innocent eyes, holding his hand partially over his mouth in a manufactured posture of unassuming sweetness. “If you’re trying to get Tenko to join your evil organization,” Chabashira continued with narrowed eyes, “then you can look elsewhere! Tenko has greater plans in life than to be a minion!”

“And God has greater plans for your life, too,” Angie agreed, holding a pencil in one hand and a red popsicle stick in the other. Her comment went largely unnoticed, as did an unsuccessful attempt committed mainly out of spite by Iruma to confiscate her popsicle stick.

Ouma smiled a little wider and turned his head down so his hair cast a small shadow over his eyes. Chabashira continued unfettered by his behavior: “And if you’re staring because you have some fantasy about choosing Tenko as a romantic option, then you’ve got another think coming, Ouma-san, and Tenko is prepared to give you a violent lesson in pain if you try anything unseemly!”

Kiibo grimaced at that while Saihara adjusted the brim of his hat uncomfortably; and Yumeno, who was sitting across from Chabashira, cocked an eyebrow in Ouma’s direction as if challenging him (in the most active way of which she was capable) to respond to Chabashira’s second suggestion. Shinguuji stared at the pair of arguing inmates (inasmuch as Ouma’s side of the conversation so far could be called arguing) with his usual thin smile and narrow eyes, while Toujo appeared to be preparing a fresh rag on the off chance something needed to be cleaned as a result of this incident.

“I haven’t got any use for you for either of those things, Chabashira-chan,” Ouma finally said after letting Chabashira’s complaints hang in the atmosphere a little too long. “If you have to know, I was just thinking…” His smile grew even a little bit wider as he delivered his news: “It’s especially noticeable when you sit next to each other, but you two really do look rather similar.”

Chabashira was momentarily dumbfounded, and a furrowing of her eyebrows and slight gape of her mouth showed it; most of the others showed similar confusion, with Iruma looking up from a set of blueprints she was sketching and Hoshi dropping a butterknife he was twirling between his fingers with a clattering sound. The only one of the kids to react differently was Harukawa, who was sitting on Chabashira’s other side and immediately gave Ouma a piercing stare.

“We…huh??” Chabashira demanded.

“What is that supposed to mean, Ouma?” Harukawa snapped right after, drawing herself to her full height—which was only about an inch and a half taller than Ouma, but it gave her the authority she needed to make it clear she was trying to intimidate him.

“Yeah, what are you saying, Ouma-kun?” Akamatsu followed up, though she didn’t have the obvious edge to her voice that Harukawa had, instead sounding genuinely curious. Amami sported a small grin, attention completely on the scene in front of him.

“Oh, please,” Ouma giggled, still addressing Chabashira and now Harukawa. “I mean, look at each other, seriously.”

The girls looked hopelessly (and in Harukawa’s case, resentfully) confused, but did as Ouma suggested anyway. The rest of their classmates took this opportunity to compare them as well, resulting in some widening of eyes and a “kukuku” from Shinguuji. Shirogane cupped both her hands over her mouth like she’d just had some brilliant idea, and Momota drummed his hands on the table a few times to try to distract from the amusement in his expression.

“Like looking in a better-dressed mirror, hm?” Ouma mused, neglecting to mention which of the girls he was talking to.

Chabashira and Harukawa both glared at him. “Tenko’s sure she doesn’t know what you’re talking about, Ouma-san!” she insisted, though she didn’t sound especially “sure.” She looked even less certain of herself when she caught Yumeno staring at her and Harukawa with an expression like she’d just been shown actual proof of the existence of aliens.

“If you say so,” Ouma simpered, lowering his head in order to look out the tops of his eyes at the girls he claimed looked so much alike.

“Yes, we ‘say so,’” Harukawa mocked him, looking well and truly pissed off. “Really, of all the asinine topics you could have brought to dinner, this was the one you decided to vocalize?”

“Oh, don’t mind me, Harukawa-chan!” Ouma assured her, smiling rather like he knew exactly when the world was going to end. “Forget about it, I must have been seeing things.”

But the seed of possibility had already been planted in everyone’s minds, and as the minutes ticked by, it grew into a sprout of suspicion. Quick glances toward the two girls and expressions on various faces that looked as though their owners were trying to decipher complex mathematical phrases were the least of the odd behavior that occurred during the next few minutes; on the more extreme end were mumbled conversations asking after any truth to what Ouma had said and some badly-disguised wordplay suggesting Chabashira and Harukawa might be twins.

Angie moved to sit by Shirogane and the two of them began whispering excitedly at each other, with Angie getting out a drawing pad and beginning to furiously sketch something at Shirogane’s quiet direction. Harukawa and Chabashira looked at each other uncomfortably when they witnessed this but said nothing. Meanwhile, Toujo traveled back and forth between the dining room and the kitchen to collect dinner plates and distribute some desserts, but it was hard not to notice that she spent a little more time than necessary exchanging plates with Harukawa and Chabashira, making sure to get a careful look at their faces.

Shinguuji, Iruma, and Akamatsu perpetrated an animated discussion that they only half-heartedly tried to keep quiet and wherein they concocted some kind of backstory for the “twins” that involved them being separated at birth with only some shared family heirloom to help them find their way back to each other. “What exquisite irony,” Shinguuji languished dramatically (but not too loudly) while Iruma scribbled the story down in incomprehensible shorthand, “that their heartwarming reunion would be destined for such a hellish dwelling as this school.” Akamatsu punctuated with an overwrought hand gesture, holding it over her forehead like she were about to faint.

“Is she okay?” Kiibo whispered to Momota. He gently poked Yumeno’s shoulder a couple times for effect—he and Momota were sitting on either side of her—but she didn’t move from the position she’d been in since Ouma first made his claim. Even now, she looked basically catatonic, bug-eyed and immobile as she stared unblinkingly in Harukawa and Chabashira’s direction.

“She’ll be fine,” Momota agreed with a smirk. “Don’t quote me on this, I think she’s just imagining the implications of two Chabashiras.”

“What implications?” Kiibo inquired.

Meanwhile, Gokuhara and Amami were hotly debating the reasonableness of Ouma’s suggestion. Gokuhara was of the school of thought that the mole on Chabashira’s chin made her face too different for the comparison to work, while Amami couldn’t get past the similarity of their hairstyles. Saihara and Hoshi concluded after a brief discussion and based on their own rather opposite experiences with the law that it might be very easy to mistake either Harukawa or Chabashira for the other in a line-up.

The sprout of suspicion had blossomed into a flower of full realization.

Ouma made no attempt to conceal his delight at these events, with the great majority of his classmates having agreed with him. He ate dessert with a far too self-satisfied grin on his face as he pretended without much dedication not to hear and see what the others were saying and doing. Chabashira and Harukawa were less pleased: the aikido practitioner moved her food awkwardly around on her plate while the nursery school teacher simply sat and seethed. Neither of them probably was used to being the singular center of attention among the group, and certainly not in conjunction with each other of all people.

Harukawa finally had enough when Akamatsu stood up and physically walked over to her just to look her over up close. The hilariously unsubtle examination, instigated at the behest of the still-storyboarding Iruma, included carefully sizing up Harukawa’s clothing and accessories in case any of them stood out as obviously similar to Chabashira’s. “They both wear seifuku,” Iruma noted quietly while Akamatsu did her work.

“So do you, though,” Momota cut in, even though he was not a part of the “backstory club.” Iruma hissed at him.

But even as Akamatsu blatantly, and while clearly having great fun, stared her up and down, Harukawa didn’t yet _voice_ that she’d had enough. She only did that when her classmate prodded at the bracelet she wore on her left wrist. At that, she slammed her left hand on the dining table with a venomous “ _What??_ ”

Instantly, Angie and Shinguuji began to laugh. Hoshi simply snorted, and Toujo stood from her seat to collect Harukawa’s dessert plate. “We wouldn’t want you to injure yourself on this, Harukawa-san,” she noted, “what with the advanced physical prowess you must have inherited.”

“What are you _talking_ about??” Harukawa pressed, looking rather like she knew some predictable joke was coming but couldn’t figure out what it was.

Toujo simply smiled. “Well, since you and Chabashira-san are _clearly_ related, you must have some of her aikido skill in you,” she answered, immediately retreating to the kitchen afterward to avoid being struck by the fork lodged in her direction. Ouma began laughing his signature “nishishi” at the exhibition.

“Good one, Toujo-san!” Amami called after her, stifling his own soft chuckling.

“Alright, the first thing you _men_ aces need to know,” Chabashira said firmly, cutting off their laughter, “and the rest of you too, is that Tenko does not _share_ her abilities with just anyone! Only a person with the unwavering spirit and power of a true defender can hope to understand Neo Aikido!”

“Of course,” Saihara affirmed with a nod. “No, of course you’re right, Chabashira-san. And…this may sound off-topic, but what high school did you go to before this?”

“As if Tenko would tell an awful boy such personal information!” Chabashira retorted.

“Stone College Preparatory Academy,” Yumeno volunteered, having returned to Earth after her trance. Chabashira crossed her arms with a sigh.

“And what about Harukawa?” Hoshi wondered.

“Not your business,” Harukawa answered shortly.

“Let me guess…” Saihara tapped the side of his head as he listed possibilities: “Stone Pilot Academy? Stone Heart…?”

Harukawa grimaced at the second suggestion. “Oh, it has ‘Heart’ in it,” Akamatsu posited.

“Brave Heart Hall High School,” Saihara announced with a confident smirk. Harukawa breathed out a highly annoyed sigh.

“Oh my gosh, but like, Brave Heart and Stone College are just, like, a couple cities away from each other!” Angie pointed out.

“In addition, they’re both mostly attended by girls from low-income families,” Kiibo informed everyone.

“ _It’s all falling into place,_ ” Iruma cried, scribbling as quickly as her fingers would let her.

“The only thing that could make it more likely is if one of them was an orphan,” Gokuhara joked, forgetting for a moment how precisely true his words were.

Harukawa clenched her teeth and stared at him with wide eyes. “Gonta-kun, you absolute genius,” Akamatsu said with a wide smile. Harukawa slammed the table again, this time with her head.

“I never expected this ‘separated at birth’ narrative to gain such traction,” Shinguuji commented in a feathery voice.

“No, like, this is canon now,” Shirogane answered with a short laugh.

“Does this mean they have the same birth surname?” Yumeno asked.

“We do _not_ look that much alike!” Chabashira protested, balling her hands into fists.

“Since Harukawa-san _is_ an orphan, it would be more likely that Chabashira is their shared birth name,” Kiibo noted.

“Two Chabashiras,” Yumeno murmured.

“Maybe more,” Momota added.

“Aaaaaaaand _done!_ ” Angie said suddenly with a giggle, setting down her pencil and popsicle stick. With an imperceptible flash, Iruma snatched the stick for herself, but quickly seemed to realize what a pointless accomplishment it was.

“What are you done with, Angie-san?” Gokuhara asked.

“Something worth all of our whiles, I hope!” Ouma cooed, looking more pleased with himself than should have been humanly possible.

“So Angie-san and I decided to do a little project,” Shirogane explained with a grin. “Show them, Angie-san!”

“Showing!” Angie acknowledged, holding up her drawing pad.

Harukawa looked up from her posture of basic surrender. “So what?” she sneered. “It’s just a drawing of Chabashira.”

Angie and Shirogane both instantly burst into laughter. Harukawa looked primally frightened while a couple of the others strained to get a better look at Angie’s drawing. “Oh my god,” Momota interjected suddenly.

“That’s not Chabashira-san, that’s you!” Saihara deduced, pointing aggressively at the drawing pad.

“What?? Oh-oh my god,” Harukawa stammered, seeing herself caught in the trap.

“It’s just you in Chabashira-san’s clothes,” Amami clarified for anyone who didn’t get it.

“That was a dirty trick!” Chabashira complained. “Besides, there’s clearly a lot different between Tenko and Harukawa-san just by looking at this picture! Like, Tenko wears her pigtails differently!”

“Chabashira is clearly taller than I am,” Harukawa reminded everyone.

“Our eyes aren’t even the same shape!” Chabashira added after having to think for another moment.

“Right, you’re night and day,” Ouma drawled sardonically.

“The only reason you were able to trick me like that is because you’d already got the both of us stressed out about this idiotic, nonsense charade,” Harukawa insisted.

“Is that the real truth?” Angie asked with a mischievous smile. “Hey, Kirumi!” she called to the maid who was exiting the kitchen, and held up her drawing pad.

“That’s a lovely drawing of Chabashira-san,” Toujo congratulated her.

Harukawa rested her face on the table again.

“What exactly do we do with this information?” Hoshi inquired.

“I don’t know, I was wondering the same thing,” Akamatsu said. “I mean…this revelation feels _very_ powerful, but I don’t know how consequential it really is to our lives.”

“It isn’t consequential, because Tenko and Harukawa-san aren’t related!” Chabashira reasserted. “This is all just a bunch of silly coincidences that you guys are getting out of control over!”

“You could start by _thanking_ us,” Iruma ordered. “It’s because of all of us you’ve finally been reunited, like in some shit-lame feel-good family movie!”

“It is always a good time in a person’s life to be reunited with your family,” Gokuhara agreed, smiling fondly.

“This is all _your_ fault,” Harukawa told Ouma, her lip curled into a snarl as if she’d smelled something sour.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Ouma chirped. “We were all bound to figure it out eventually, it just happened that I was the first.”

“And man, are we glad you did,” Amami replied.

Chabashira and Harukawa stared at each other for a moment, helpless and bound to serve as a punchline for the others’ jokes for at least the remainder of the night.

But then they had an idea, together. A telepathic-conversation sort of an idea (except not really; they would discuss the idea in detail in person later to make sure they were actually thinking the same thing).

It would involve getting Shirogane to switch allegiances and help them out with tailoring and makeup, but they certainly had the power to turn everyone’s ridiculous assumptions back on them. They would spend the entire next day changing between their normal clothes and each other’s clothes at random so that nobody could successfully identify them—if anyone got it wrong, they’d act like it was completely unreasonable for effect. Their fellow inmates would be forced to learn their actual physical differences, of which there were at least a couple.

Through the sheer power of their spite, the girls would prevent their classmates from making any further jokes about this silly subject. It was a brilliant plan that couldn’t fail.

“Since they’re twins, does that mean they can fuse into one really tall lesbian in a trench coat?” Iruma asked seriously.

“May I introduce this tall lesbian in the trench coat to my sister?” Shinguuji followed up, sounding as sincere.

A brilliant plan; but for tonight, they’d have to suffer.


End file.
